Friday, July 21, 2017

To Keep Himself in Power, Putin has Created an Off-Putting ‘State of Fools,’ Yakovenko Says

Paul
Goble

Staunton, July 21 – “By his planned
cleansing of the political field of Russia” of anyone who might challenge him,
Vladimir Putin has “liquidated any direct threat to the preservation of his
power,” Aleksandr Yakovenko says. But at the same time, he “has created a new
albeit long-term threat” to him and Russia.

The essence of this threat, the
Moscow commentator says, is that “in Russia today, there exists a critical mass
of fools in power and fools with initiative,” a reality that Putin himself
occasionally acknowledges as he did with regard to official attacks on artists
and directors (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=59719A83C5005).

“But the winner of the competition
for the title ‘chief fool of the month’ undoubtedly is DNR head Aleksandr
Zakharchenko who declared that he is replacing Ukraine and putting in its place
Malorossiya with a capital in Donetsk.”Unlike
most fools in Putin’s entourage, this wasn’t a personal evaluation or a
prediction: this was a declaration.

Holding what he said was “’a
constitutional act,’” Zakharchenko listed the 19 Ukrainian oblasts he said
would be part of his new state. (Why he didn’t list the other four is
uncertain. Perhaps he doesn’t know, Yakovenko says.) Worse yet, “it is obvious
that the Kremlin wasn’t prepared to go so far in its own alternative reality.”

Putin’s press secretary Dmitry
Peskov didn’t quite know how to react at all, while Vladislav Surkov suggested
that all the “hype” about Malorosia about “the imaginary state of Malorossiya
on the whole is useful.”At least, it
will have an impact on Ukraine’s efforts to integrate with Europe.

To the honor of Ukrainians,
Yakovenko continues, “many of them still have” a positive attitude toward
Russia and its leadership.”But “it is difficult
to say how the further rapid growth in the number of fools in the Russian leadership
and the appearance of ever new foolish initiatives on the relationship of
citizens of Ukraine and Russia.”

“Especially,” he concludes, “if one
considers that the author of this main and most foolish initiative on the
occupation of Crimea intends to continue to rule Russia until the end of his
life and Russians in the same way are prepared to put up with this.”